Residents on Savannah’s declining eastside supported the education sales tax extension, ESPLOST II, believing that Spencer Elementary School’s old flood-prone campus would be replaced with a beautiful, modern facility.

Families in the new growth areas of Port Wentworth went to the polls expecting that ESPLOST II would fund a new neighborhood K-8 school for their little ones.

But one year after the education sales tax was extended, the construction plans are being scaled back by $12 million because of low revenue collections. Port Wentworth and the eastside may not get the grand new schools they were hoping for. School Board Member Ruby Jones warned that they won’t be happy.

“The reason ESPLOST II passed is because people in those communities felt they were going to get new schools. Now, we’re saying Spencer and Port Wentworth are not going to get new schools,” Jones said. “It looks like a bait-and-switch.”

She was right.

“If we don’t get the schools that we were pretty much promised, this ESPLOST will be the last,” said Port Wentworth Mayor Glenn “Pig” Jones.

Promises, promises

The Savannah-Chatham public school board had completed much of its initial $326.6 million ESPLOST project list in 2011 when members promised the public another $350 million in school improvements for agreeing to extend the penny sales tax thorough 2016.

Among the ESPLOST II promises were an $18,232,500 facility for Spencer and a $32,175,000 K-8 campus for Port Wentworth. But ESPLOST II revenue has been slow to come.

After 10 months of ESPLOST II collections, the district was averaging about $5.25 million per month, far less than anticipated.

“At that rate, we will be $15 million short at the end of the 60-month collection period,” said Savannah-Chatham Public Schools Chief of Staff David Fields.

Coming up short is something the district wants to avoid. The more satisfied voters are with sales tax-funded improvements, the more likely they will keep extending the education sales tax, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars for public schools.

But not long after the ESPLOST I collections ended, district officials realized they were $15 million short of completing their ESPLOST I projects list. After scaling back and deferring projects, they were able to stave off public furor by pledging to be more astute with ESPLOST II funds.

During a September retreat, school board members suggested maximizing ESPLOST II revenue by merging some schools and renovating existing buildings instead of buying land and constructing new facilities. This month, the board received plans for merging schools and cutting ESPLOST II projects. Spencer’s new campus and Port Wentworth’s new K-8 school were on the chopping block.

“Before we get into it too far, we think a $12 million cut is good for planning,” Fields said. “It’s easier to put it back than it is to take it out.”

It is perfect reasoning. Unfortunately, no one wants their projects taken out.

Plucking Port Wentworth

Currently, the ESPLOST II plan calls for building a new $32 million K-8 school in Port Wentworth away from the industrial area where the current school sits. It was supposed to be the first ESPLOST II project. In fact, back in May, the district was preparing to buy a 101.91-acre tract just south of the intersection of Ga. 21 and Hendly Road for $1.75 million.

But the deal fell through because of problems with the site. Now officials are looking for a cheaper alternative. They’ve discussed everything from merging with Mercer Middle and Godley Station K-8 to rebuilding on the current site. Jones, Port Wentworth’s mayor, is opposed to the merger ideas. He wants the school to remain in Port Wentworth.

“When I saw the proposal for the merger, I went through the roof,” Jones said. “Godley Station is jam-packed and to ask all our kids in Port Wentworth to get on a bus and ride to Mercer is unbelievable.”

Jones said he is open to ideas about rebuilding on the current site, but wants the district to select a location that will accommodate Port Wentworth’s growing population over the next 50 years.

“The parents want a K-8 community school — a brand new school,” Jones said. “The citizens know they deserve their own school. That’s the biggest thing.”

Eastside extractions

ESPLOST II currently devotes $3,217,500 to a classroom addition and cafeteria improvements at Hubert Middle. The plan also includes building a new $18,232,500 school for Spencer Elementary. But district officials say they can save as much as $19.434 million by merging Hubert Middle with Savannah High and by moving Spencer Elementary into the Hubert building. Staff is working on a detailed report about how the proposal will work, and the school board plans to vote on the matter in January.

Neither Hubert Middle nor Savannah High enroll enough students to fill their relatively new buildings. By merging the two populations and making Savannah High a 6-12 school, district officials say they can spend about $640,000 to set up the school within a school and cut ESPLOST II costs by $2,577,500.

Once the Hubert Middle building is empty, district officials say it would take at least $1.376 million to renovate and outfit the building to house Spencer Elementary students. Renovating Hubert instead of building a new facility would cut ESPLOST II costs by $16,856,500. Some board members say the renovation should be extensive enough to give the building a new look.

But eastside residents aren’t just concerned about the fairness of getting a remodeled school instead of a new one. They don’t think it is safe to merge middle and high schools, particularly inner-city schools that have had issues with behavior and campus violence.

Daniel Frazier is a former Savannah-Chatham school board member who attended Savannah High and Hubert.

“I have a problem putting kids age 11, 12 and 13 with students who may be 18, 19 or 20,” he said. “Even if they can find a way to separate them in the common areas, they’ll all be intermingling as they ride the bus and walk home. It’s a safety issue. It’s not just unfair. It makes no sense.”

School Board President Joe Buck said the district is working hard to do the right things with the resources at hand.

“We are around $15-$20 million short to do what we promised to do, so we have to do the right thing,” he said “It is not possible to build more schools than we have money for. It’s not about trying to deprive someone ­— it’s trying to make the best decisions for all students.”

PROPOSED ESPLOST II CUTS

Savannah-Chatham public schools officials want to cut $12 million in promised ESPLOST II school improvements because of lower than anticipated revenue. Officials also want to use some ESPLOST II funds to pay for ESPLOST I projects that were deferred in May after they discovered they had exhausted all of the revenue from the first education sales tax. The following proposals have been presented to the board:

Spencer, Hubert and Savannah High shuffle: Officials hope to cut as much as $19.434 million in ESPLOST II costs with a plan to merge Hubert Middle with Savannah High and move Spencer Elementary into the Hubert building. The Savannah-Chatham school board is set to vote on a more detailed plan in January.

Hubert/Savannah High merger: Both the Hubert Middle School and Savannah High School buildings are relatively new and there aren’t enough students to fill them up. District officials say they can right-size their schools and trim down the $3,217,500 in the current ESPLOST II budget for improvements at Hubert by merging the schools. If Hubert is merged with Savannah High, district officials say they will only need about $640,000 to modify the high school and create separate spaces for middle schoolers.

Transplanting Spencer: Once Hubert is empty, officials say they can use $1.376 million to renovate and outfit the building to house Spencer Elementary students. The old Spencer building would be closed. Renovating instead of building a new, $18,232,500 facility would cut ESPLOST II costs by $16,856,500.

THE PORT WENTWORTH PROBLEM

District officials haven’t had luck finding an affordable and acceptable site for a new K-8 school in the newly developed areas in north Port Wentworth. They haven’t had much luck coming up with an acceptable alternative to building a new, $32.175 K-8 school, either. Here are some ideas that were presented to the school board, but not recommended for approval:

Merger with Mercer: Port Wentworth Elementary could be merged with Mercer Middle in Garden City. But limited capacity at Mercer would create a domino effect of changes. If Mercer becomes a K-8 to accommodate Port Wentworth students, Groves High would have to be converted to a 6-12 so it could accommodate some displaced Mercer students. The changes would require costs to bus students and remodel Groves and Mercer to accommodate younger students.

Cram into Godley Station K-8: $3.5 million in additions could be built onto the new ESPLOST I-funded Godley Station School to accommodate some students from Port Wentworth Elementary. That would expand the already large school to a 1,600-student capacity. Mercer Middle would still have to be converted to a K-8 to accommodate the rest of Port Wentworth students.

Rebuild: Port Wentworth Elementary could be rebuilt at its current site to cut costs. But that would mean the school would remain close to industrial areas.

OTHER CUTS

The $12 million trim will also affect the following:

Isle of Hope: $4.7 million campus expansion cut

Security cameras: Buying fewer cameras, but placing them more strategically, would save $1.3 million

Hesse Elementary: Improvements and expansion of Hesse would be scaled back by $572,177

Bond issuance fees: Would be cut by $237,150

ESPLOST II ADD-ONS

• $6.6 million will pay for a company to manage the ESPLOST II building campaign.

• $250,000 will turn the old Windsor Forest High gym into a multi-purpose room. ESPLOST I funds built and equipped a new gym. The school now has two.

• $902,000 will refurbish the Oatland Island water tank project from ESPLOST I.

• Work at May Howard Elementary was deferred in ESPLOST I. The school was budgeted for a $15 million replacement in ESPLOST II; $2.6 million will be added.

• Heard Elementary expansion was deferred in ESPLOST I. The school is budgeted for a $3.2 million renovation; $3.9 million will be added to the project.

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It's interesting that while I served on the board for a proposed K-8 Charter School in north PW that would be open to all PW students we were able to find the land and get a developer to actually build the school for us. The problem was Mayor Jones pushed to get the school board to deny us the charter. So now he is crying foul when the school board is going to drop their own plans to build an new K-8 in PW. Mayor Jones needs to know what KARMA is. He fought against a new k-8 charter school here that would not cost the taxpayer's a dime to build. Now he wants to take his toys and go home.

I know you hate your town's governmaent from mayor down to dog catcher. But your little story, even if it's basically true, about the mayor not wanting a charter school is not based in reality. Charter schools by definition have to be open to all students in a dstrict. It would not have been a school for all of Port Wentworth. It would have been open to all of the county and would have had to use a lottery to fill spots. So in order to have a school for Port Wentworth, you need the school board to build a school zoned for port Wentworth.

Moved away 32 years ago this year. Upon my departure, I read in the Savannah Morning News where taxes raised for Westside were used elsewhere because of revenue shortfall. Trying to remember....why did I move away? Must have been that honest government......

My statement is accurate. The Charter Scool was open to all the kids in PW K-8. I was also to be open to children from other parts of the county.

The land was to be donated by a developer in the north end of the city. The developer's as a group would have built it and rented it to the charter school.

The taxpayer's would not have had to foot the bill to buy land or build the school. The Mayor wanted the school board to build a school for K-8 instead. The school board thendenied the charter and promissed the Mayor they would build the K-8 school instead. IT BACKFIRED as you can see from the SMN article. Mayor Jones lost a Charter School for the kids in PW, and other parts of the county, and now look where he is. Egg on Face PIGGIE

Pig Jones could have his nice brand new K-8 school located in the north end within 18 months if he would stop playing politics at the expense of the kids. All he has to do is call me and I can get the Charter School back on track. Simple phone call Pig, are you willing to call me for the sake of the kids and ask for my help in getting a brand new school built in PW?

Yes by virtue of those kids being in Chatham County, the school would be open to all kids in PW. But, it would also be open to all kids in Pooler, and Bloomingdale, and GC, and Savannah, and Thunderbolt, and Tybee, and Vernonburg, and unincorporated Chatham county. The student body would be selected by a lottery. The people of PW would have no guarantee of admission over the people in any other part of the county. That's the part you keep glossing over. It would have been, I suppose a school IN PW. But as a charter school, it would have been a school FOR Chatham county.

... have to be made, they should never include combining a middle school with a high school.

Why are they having so much trouble finding a location for a school in Port Wentworth? Haven't they ever heard of eminent domain? That's how the land was obtained on Wilmington Island for the islands school.

This tactic of the Savannah-Chatham public school board resembles a "flim-flam". In a previous life, they must have worked for P.T. Barnum. Dr. Buck, Dr. Lockamany, Mr. Fields don't bother to approach the public looking for understanding and pity or plead that due to circumstances beyond your control, we as a school board can't "deliver" like Domino's Pizza and Carl the "mailman" Malone. Remind me not to buy any "bridges" or "swamp land" from any of you.

OK, now that we're in this bind, how about the newly contracted Program Management Team helping us out? School Board Member, Dr. Dionne Hoskins made a suggestion that they could possibly come up with a large part of the "$12 million shortage" by scaling back on some of the projected costs of building the proposed schools.

I talked to one of my Program Management firms and they told me there is usually some "wiggle room" in the building of schools. They said that part of their job is saving their clients money by suggesting "where and how" this could be done.

At the same time, though, they told me they believe Parsons Team low-balled the competition, and their $6 million fee would not be conducive to them giving the School District their "A Game". They brought up the fact that the ESPLOST I Program Management team, ran low on money near the end of ESPLOST I. They sent home folk that were vital in the running of things because "they simply could not afford them".

Doesn't it, then, raise some "red flags", since this Management Team is charging the same $6 million that the URS/ Pat Mathis Team charged?

So David Fields admits that they came up short on revenue for ESPLOST I and went ahead and over estimated for ESPLOST II. Sounds like David Fields and his band of number crunchers is the major problem in the equation. Maybe replacing him with someone who knows math and accounting would be a good start.

If the School Board combines Hubert and Savannah High together next year I will pull my children out of school and teach them at home. this Bull Mess is ridiculous, how you expect kids who are 11,12,13 years old to come into their own when you have folks who are age 16 to 20 who are bullying other students that are the same age as them. WTH!!!!!!!!

"Shouldn’t the school board be proactive and let the people know up front that if the ESPLOST revenue continues to be collected at the same rate as recent months there will have to be reductions?

This did not happen in a timely way in ESPLOST1 so the board was attempting to be proactive. There has been no final action on the priority list for ESPLOST2, and the board was reviewing possibilities should there be no change in the current economy.

The article leaves the public to believe the school board has done something wrong, and this has not happened.

Please help your staff to refrain from misleading the public, especially with the headlines used to sell papers. Often the articles don’t align with the headlines."

Cut the School Board a little slack. Let's see what they do to cause good things to happen. I have the trust that they will do us proud.

Hey, anybody got any information, or opinion, on the "low-balling" allegation on the Program Management fee, for ESPLOST II? Can a QUALITY job be done for $6 million? We understand that Kahn bid $13 million. So, why can we expect Parsons to do it for $6? Do we get their "A Game" for $6 million?

On the ESPLOST I Program Management Team, the Minority Partner got $2 million of the $6 million. How much is the Minority Partner scheduled for on this $6 million for ESPLOST II? My concern is that they not be short-changed.